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Chip Harrison #1
No Score
In this sinfully silly coming-of-age adventure, a young orphan works a series of very odd jobs, attempting to make his fortune and lose his virginity in one fell swoop
Chip Harrison thought he was normal until his parents blew their brains out. An orphan at seventeen, he is cast out of his prep school with nothing in his pocket but $27.46 and a vintage prophylactic, determined to make his fortune as soon as he manages to lose his virginity. He has no experience in business or bed, but no amount of rotten jobs, irate husbands, or loaded revolvers will stop him.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Lawrence Block, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from his personal collection, and a new afterword written by the author.
Chip Harrison thought he was normal until his parents blew their brains out. An orphan at seventeen, he is cast out of his prep school with nothing in his pocket but $27.46 and a vintage prophylactic, determined to make his fortune as soon as he manages to lose his virginity. He has no experience in business or bed, but no amount of rotten jobs, irate husbands, or loaded revolvers will stop him.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Lawrence Block, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from his personal collection, and a new afterword written by the author.
277 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1970
18 people are currently reading
224 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Block
768 books2,988 followersLawrence Block has been writing crime, mystery, and suspense fiction for more than half a century. He has published in excess (oh, wretched excess!) of 100 books, and no end of short stories.
Born in Buffalo, N.Y., LB attended Antioch College, but left before completing his studies; school authorities advised him that they felt he’d be happier elsewhere, and he thought this was remarkably perceptive of them.
His earliest work, published pseudonymously in the late 1950s, was mostly in the field of midcentury erotica, an apprenticeship he shared with Donald E. Westlake and Robert Silverberg. The first time Lawrence Block’s name appeared in print was when his short story “You Can’t Lose” was published in the February 1958 issue of Manhunt. The first book published under his own name was Mona (1961); it was reissued several times over the years, once as Sweet Slow Death. In 2005 it became the first offering from Hard Case Crime, and bore for the first time LB’s original title, Grifter’s Game.
LB is best known for his series characters, including cop-turned-private investigator Matthew Scudder, gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanner, and introspective assassin Keller.
Because one name is never enough, LB has also published under pseudonyms including Jill Emerson, John Warren Wells, Lesley Evans, and Anne Campbell Clarke.
LB’s magazine appearances include American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, Linn’s Stamp News, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and The New York Times. His monthly instructional column ran in Writer’s Digest for 14 years, and led to a string of books for writers, including the classics Telling Lies for Fun & Profit and The Liar’s Bible. He has also written episodic television (Tilt!) and the Wong Kar-wai film, My Blueberry Nights.
Several of LB’s books have been filmed. The latest, A Walk Among the Tombstones, stars Liam Neeson as Matthew Scudder and is scheduled for release in September, 2014.
LB is a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America, and a past president of MWA and the Private Eye Writers of America. He has won the Edgar and Shamus awards four times each, and the Japanese Maltese Falcon award twice, as well as the Nero Wolfe and Philip Marlowe awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Diamond Dagger for Life Achievement from the Crime Writers Association (UK). He’s also been honored with the Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award from Mystery Ink magazine and the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer for Lifetime Achievement in the short story. In France, he has been proclaimed a Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice been awarded the Societe 813 trophy. He has been a guest of honor at Bouchercon and at book fairs and mystery festivals in France, Germany, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan. As if that were not enough, he was also presented with the key to the city of Muncie, Indiana. (But as soon as he left, they changed the locks.)
LB and his wife Lynne are enthusiastic New Yorkers and relentless world travelers; the two are members of the Travelers Century Club, and have visited around 160 countries.
He is a modest and humble fellow, although you would never guess as much from this biographical note.
Born in Buffalo, N.Y., LB attended Antioch College, but left before completing his studies; school authorities advised him that they felt he’d be happier elsewhere, and he thought this was remarkably perceptive of them.
His earliest work, published pseudonymously in the late 1950s, was mostly in the field of midcentury erotica, an apprenticeship he shared with Donald E. Westlake and Robert Silverberg. The first time Lawrence Block’s name appeared in print was when his short story “You Can’t Lose” was published in the February 1958 issue of Manhunt. The first book published under his own name was Mona (1961); it was reissued several times over the years, once as Sweet Slow Death. In 2005 it became the first offering from Hard Case Crime, and bore for the first time LB’s original title, Grifter’s Game.
LB is best known for his series characters, including cop-turned-private investigator Matthew Scudder, gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanner, and introspective assassin Keller.
Because one name is never enough, LB has also published under pseudonyms including Jill Emerson, John Warren Wells, Lesley Evans, and Anne Campbell Clarke.
LB’s magazine appearances include American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, Linn’s Stamp News, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and The New York Times. His monthly instructional column ran in Writer’s Digest for 14 years, and led to a string of books for writers, including the classics Telling Lies for Fun & Profit and The Liar’s Bible. He has also written episodic television (Tilt!) and the Wong Kar-wai film, My Blueberry Nights.
Several of LB’s books have been filmed. The latest, A Walk Among the Tombstones, stars Liam Neeson as Matthew Scudder and is scheduled for release in September, 2014.
LB is a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America, and a past president of MWA and the Private Eye Writers of America. He has won the Edgar and Shamus awards four times each, and the Japanese Maltese Falcon award twice, as well as the Nero Wolfe and Philip Marlowe awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Diamond Dagger for Life Achievement from the Crime Writers Association (UK). He’s also been honored with the Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award from Mystery Ink magazine and the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer for Lifetime Achievement in the short story. In France, he has been proclaimed a Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice been awarded the Societe 813 trophy. He has been a guest of honor at Bouchercon and at book fairs and mystery festivals in France, Germany, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan. As if that were not enough, he was also presented with the key to the city of Muncie, Indiana. (But as soon as he left, they changed the locks.)
LB and his wife Lynne are enthusiastic New Yorkers and relentless world travelers; the two are members of the Travelers Century Club, and have visited around 160 countries.
He is a modest and humble fellow, although you would never guess as much from this biographical note.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
October 20, 2018
For such a short book, it sure managed to drag on. The first chapter was all the fumbling attempts of teenager trying to get laid. The second was an info dump of where he came from. I didn't make it much further. By that time, I was hoping he'd cut his own throat & put himself out of my misery.
May 6, 2018
'Chip' Harrison is pretty much your typical randy teenager, a seventeen year old virgin obsessed with finally getting 'to home plate'.
Real name Leigh Harvey Harrison ('ever since late 1963 people named Leigh Harvey Anything have been very willing to be called something else'), the son of a husband and wife con artist team, Chip finds himself orphaned and homeless when his father kills his mother and commits suicide when their luck finally runs out on them.
Booted out of prep school just short of graduation with nothing more than '$27.46 and an old rubber', Chip hitches to Chicago, starts to look for a job and decides there and then, even though he's homeless, parentless, virtually penniless and had yet to pop his cherry, that 'I was going to Succeed ... And there would be women every step of the way.'
Judging by the cover of this fairly recent edition of a short book Block penned in the early 1970's, it's being sold as a crime novel now, like most of his other work, but really it's a teenage sex romp.
Chip is a sweet and likable narrator, a hornier Holden Cauldfield if you will, full of naive digressions and an optimism that becomes tempered but never blunted along the way, striking out again and again as all manor of interventions conspire against him.
He tries his hand at any crummy job he can get, from street photographer's assistant, door to door salesman, and fruit picker, finding himself embroiled in various partially fulfilling sexual escapades along the way. But will he finally lose the Big V?
Sure, it's incredibly non-PC, one scene in particular goes a little too far and wouldn't be written by any respectable writer these days, but it's essentially harmless fun.
I know that Block has written a whole slew of erotic fiction in his past, so it didn't surprise me that he was something of a dab hand. I enjoyed this frolic when I first read it a few years back, certainly enough to give it another spin on a wet Sunday before this review.
Still, I can't say that I have ever felt interested in searching out any of his other, more salaciously titled contributions to the genre (anyone read $20 Lust or Warm and Willing who's willing to own up to it?)
Curiously, later novels in the series became Nero Wolfe homages, recasting Chip Harrison as a crassly amorous Archie Goodwin.
Real name Leigh Harvey Harrison ('ever since late 1963 people named Leigh Harvey Anything have been very willing to be called something else'), the son of a husband and wife con artist team, Chip finds himself orphaned and homeless when his father kills his mother and commits suicide when their luck finally runs out on them.
Booted out of prep school just short of graduation with nothing more than '$27.46 and an old rubber', Chip hitches to Chicago, starts to look for a job and decides there and then, even though he's homeless, parentless, virtually penniless and had yet to pop his cherry, that 'I was going to Succeed ... And there would be women every step of the way.'
Judging by the cover of this fairly recent edition of a short book Block penned in the early 1970's, it's being sold as a crime novel now, like most of his other work, but really it's a teenage sex romp.
Chip is a sweet and likable narrator, a hornier Holden Cauldfield if you will, full of naive digressions and an optimism that becomes tempered but never blunted along the way, striking out again and again as all manor of interventions conspire against him.
He tries his hand at any crummy job he can get, from street photographer's assistant, door to door salesman, and fruit picker, finding himself embroiled in various partially fulfilling sexual escapades along the way. But will he finally lose the Big V?
Sure, it's incredibly non-PC, one scene in particular goes a little too far and wouldn't be written by any respectable writer these days, but it's essentially harmless fun.
I know that Block has written a whole slew of erotic fiction in his past, so it didn't surprise me that he was something of a dab hand. I enjoyed this frolic when I first read it a few years back, certainly enough to give it another spin on a wet Sunday before this review.
Still, I can't say that I have ever felt interested in searching out any of his other, more salaciously titled contributions to the genre (anyone read $20 Lust or Warm and Willing who's willing to own up to it?)
Curiously, later novels in the series became Nero Wolfe homages, recasting Chip Harrison as a crassly amorous Archie Goodwin.
September 1, 2014
Way back in the nineteen-sixties, Lawrence Block was writing fiction. He's been doing that for some time now. Any lover of mystery fiction should be at least passingly familiar with Mathew Scudder, Block's recovering alcoholic, New York ex-cop, and free lance consultant.
No Score is not Matt Scudder. It is a Chip Harrison mystery, written over twenty years ago, recently reissued and it is a tribute to this master writer how well it stands up. Oh, sure, you'll find some dated references, some gender-related attitudes that we've (mostly) grown beyond. Still, this is a fine, well-written story, and if the mystery is a little light, well, Chip Harrison's tribulations in his innocent if highly focused teen-aged attempts to score are delightful in their frivolity.
As is always the case with a Block story, the characters are keenly observed, strange, wonderful and more often than not, very funny. The dialogue is right on and each scene is carefully drawn. At the same time, some of No Score's explicitness may be offensive. An enjoyable read, a quite different dimension of Lawrence Block, but not, perhaps to everyone's taste.
No Score is not Matt Scudder. It is a Chip Harrison mystery, written over twenty years ago, recently reissued and it is a tribute to this master writer how well it stands up. Oh, sure, you'll find some dated references, some gender-related attitudes that we've (mostly) grown beyond. Still, this is a fine, well-written story, and if the mystery is a little light, well, Chip Harrison's tribulations in his innocent if highly focused teen-aged attempts to score are delightful in their frivolity.
As is always the case with a Block story, the characters are keenly observed, strange, wonderful and more often than not, very funny. The dialogue is right on and each scene is carefully drawn. At the same time, some of No Score's explicitness may be offensive. An enjoyable read, a quite different dimension of Lawrence Block, but not, perhaps to everyone's taste.
October 3, 2024
Well, I finished it so it has to get at least 2. I have read Lawrence Block before. But I am not sure he would be as popular today as it was pretty sexist, if a bit amusing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 27, 2013
#1 in the Chip Harrison series, a minor 4 book series 1970-1975. All are readable and funny; the fourth is best.
Chip Harrison series - Young Chip sets out to lose the only thing every healthy young man can't wait to lose.
Chip Harrison series - Young Chip sets out to lose the only thing every healthy young man can't wait to lose.
August 15, 2023
Spoilers ahead.
What the heck did I just read? I've been reading Lawrence Block for his mystery or private eye series and this one is completely different. I mean the start of the book is always a bit weird because Block's books can be different but it wasn't until 1/2 the book was over that I realized that it wasn't going to be a suspense book. By that time I was vested enough in the book to see it to the end.
Chips starts off in a pretty nice boarding school. But before the term is over, he is kicked out. His parents are apparently scammers who got caught and committed suicide. So he takes his wallet and walks out with the clothes on his back.
He hitchhikes to Chicago where he immediately looks for a job. I don't know what time period this is but a night at a down and out hotel is $3.50/night so it must be in the 1930's or so. His first job is with a street photographer (Greg) who snaps pictures of pedestrians and hope the pay him. A few weeks in he finds that the Greg is also a porn photographer who makes his real money with porn shoots with his wife Aileen.
He participates in a porn shoot with Aileen somewhat unwillingly and also starts a sexual relationship with her but doesn't go all the way. By the way, I guess the whole thrust of the book is about Chip trying to lose his virginity PIV. He does almost everything with Aileen but that. At some point he has an epiphany and this isn't what he wants, so he leaves.
His next job is as a door to door salesman selling termite extermination contracts. It's a bit of a con-job which makes him think about his parents' career. This career also ends in a very illegal sexual episode which was busted by the police because the crew chief bribed the last sheriff and not the current one. This book must have been written a long time ago because I can't believe this would make it past modern day censors and in fact, the author tries to make it into a humorous episode.
He runs away and his next job is as a fruit picker, I believe in upstate NY or at least a rural area. He has an almost sexual PIV encounter but is busted by a man looking for his cheating wife at the wrong address. After this he gives up hope about trying to score and has coffee at a diner. Here, a college girl (about to go to college) sits next to him and he finally gets his wish.
What the heck did I just read? I've been reading Lawrence Block for his mystery or private eye series and this one is completely different. I mean the start of the book is always a bit weird because Block's books can be different but it wasn't until 1/2 the book was over that I realized that it wasn't going to be a suspense book. By that time I was vested enough in the book to see it to the end.
Chips starts off in a pretty nice boarding school. But before the term is over, he is kicked out. His parents are apparently scammers who got caught and committed suicide. So he takes his wallet and walks out with the clothes on his back.
He hitchhikes to Chicago where he immediately looks for a job. I don't know what time period this is but a night at a down and out hotel is $3.50/night so it must be in the 1930's or so. His first job is with a street photographer (Greg) who snaps pictures of pedestrians and hope the pay him. A few weeks in he finds that the Greg is also a porn photographer who makes his real money with porn shoots with his wife Aileen.
He participates in a porn shoot with Aileen somewhat unwillingly and also starts a sexual relationship with her but doesn't go all the way. By the way, I guess the whole thrust of the book is about Chip trying to lose his virginity PIV. He does almost everything with Aileen but that. At some point he has an epiphany and this isn't what he wants, so he leaves.
His next job is as a door to door salesman selling termite extermination contracts. It's a bit of a con-job which makes him think about his parents' career. This career also ends in a very illegal sexual episode which was busted by the police because the crew chief bribed the last sheriff and not the current one. This book must have been written a long time ago because I can't believe this would make it past modern day censors and in fact, the author tries to make it into a humorous episode.
He runs away and his next job is as a fruit picker, I believe in upstate NY or at least a rural area. He has an almost sexual PIV encounter but is busted by a man looking for his cheating wife at the wrong address. After this he gives up hope about trying to score and has coffee at a diner. Here, a college girl (about to go to college) sits next to him and he finally gets his wish.
August 14, 2019
I like mysteries, so when I saw in the biggest letters on the cover of the paperback (1996) with sub-title "a Chip Harrison mystery" I bought it (50 cents). The top front cover has the line "With the wrong girl at the wrong time, love can be murder!" The back cover has "IT IS A MYSTERY" three times! False advertising! No mystery, no murder, just lust.
What it was, when first issued in 1970,was a border line soft core porn. I read online in his early days Block wrote porn paperbacks, as did some other writers starting out. This series of 4 novels was his exploration of more mainstream fiction, and it was just that. No mystery, no murder. In fact, the first paperback listed the author of the sexy cover novel as by Chip Harrison himself. So false advertising and false starts on Chip's attempt to lose his virginity fill the pages. Is it any good?
If he planned to disguise it as being written by a 17-year-old with modest writing talent, it rings true. It's not a great tale. It reflects the oh so soft core eroticism of 1970, the almost amateurish style as he tried to "mini skirt" laws and boost book sales to youthful lusters.
As a trip into the past, it works. As a book worth one's time and money today, it fails. One star merited despite the crazy prices sellers are asking for these early Block forays into crime fiction.
What it was, when first issued in 1970,was a border line soft core porn. I read online in his early days Block wrote porn paperbacks, as did some other writers starting out. This series of 4 novels was his exploration of more mainstream fiction, and it was just that. No mystery, no murder. In fact, the first paperback listed the author of the sexy cover novel as by Chip Harrison himself. So false advertising and false starts on Chip's attempt to lose his virginity fill the pages. Is it any good?
If he planned to disguise it as being written by a 17-year-old with modest writing talent, it rings true. It's not a great tale. It reflects the oh so soft core eroticism of 1970, the almost amateurish style as he tried to "mini skirt" laws and boost book sales to youthful lusters.
As a trip into the past, it works. As a book worth one's time and money today, it fails. One star merited despite the crazy prices sellers are asking for these early Block forays into crime fiction.
October 1, 2021
As others have noted this is not a mystery, it's also not very funny if you wanted to know. It's a sort of somewhat sexy/dirty, on the road, coming of age in progress story. Not really much or a plot or narrative arc.
I've read many Lawrence Block and he has much better material. This book looks like a transition from his soft core porn period to writing mainstream fiction.
I feel I would be remiss if I did not mention that in my opinion his depiction of women is not very enlightened or even very kind.
That said all the words are spelled correctly, the grammar is good and you can follow what's going on. If you want something to occupy some free time this would work, but it's noting more.
I've read many Lawrence Block and he has much better material. This book looks like a transition from his soft core porn period to writing mainstream fiction.
I feel I would be remiss if I did not mention that in my opinion his depiction of women is not very enlightened or even very kind.
That said all the words are spelled correctly, the grammar is good and you can follow what's going on. If you want something to occupy some free time this would work, but it's noting more.
March 9, 2021
Logorrhea: noun, n, An excessive and often uncontrollable flow of words. There should be a picture of this book in the dictionary as an example of logorrhea.
It's the worst book I've read in quite a while and I'm astounded that it's by Lawrence Block. I went back and looked it up to see it was very early in his career, before any of the many, and excellent, Matt Scudder books and 28 years before the 1st John Keller (my favorite Block's).
I'm also puzzled how there could be 4 more Chip Harrison books with a debut as awful as this one.
Do yourself a favor and stay away. Read the good stuff, Scudder, Keller and even Rhodenbarr.
It's the worst book I've read in quite a while and I'm astounded that it's by Lawrence Block. I went back and looked it up to see it was very early in his career, before any of the many, and excellent, Matt Scudder books and 28 years before the 1st John Keller (my favorite Block's).
I'm also puzzled how there could be 4 more Chip Harrison books with a debut as awful as this one.
Do yourself a favor and stay away. Read the good stuff, Scudder, Keller and even Rhodenbarr.
February 7, 2021
I love Lawrence Block(mostly his Matt Schudder series)
Be warned-----this is NOT a mystery, no matter what the blurb on the back of the book tells you.
This was first published in 1970, and it is not PC at all.
There is one scene in particular that would not make the cut today.
Basically, this follows 17 year old Chip Harrison as he travels across the country, trying to find work, but more importantly, trying to get laid for the first time.
There is a lot of sex/foreplay in this one.
But despite the one scene I mentioned above, it is a light in tone read.
Be warned-----this is NOT a mystery, no matter what the blurb on the back of the book tells you.
This was first published in 1970, and it is not PC at all.
There is one scene in particular that would not make the cut today.
Basically, this follows 17 year old Chip Harrison as he travels across the country, trying to find work, but more importantly, trying to get laid for the first time.
There is a lot of sex/foreplay in this one.
But despite the one scene I mentioned above, it is a light in tone read.
October 12, 2018
First of the Chip Harrison books is very straightforward. A 17 year old boy travelling the US from job to job has only one object in life - to lost his virginity! It's a genuinely funny book told by a randy teenager, and by not being too long it doesn't outstay its welcome.
The third in the series, Make Out With Murder, is the best for me, as that adds crime to the humour and soft porn of the first two books.
The third in the series, Make Out With Murder, is the best for me, as that adds crime to the humour and soft porn of the first two books.
January 27, 2020
Fun. In part it's the story of a teenager whose life is suddenly turned inside out. In part it's the story of a teenage boy's eternal search for sex. In part it's a comedy of errors. Mostly it's a story is one boy's luck, which seems to run concurrently amazingly good and horribly bad.
First book in the series, and I'm looking forward to the next. Lawrence Block always delivers an interesting story with a view out a not quite plumb window.
First book in the series, and I'm looking forward to the next. Lawrence Block always delivers an interesting story with a view out a not quite plumb window.
June 3, 2017
This is the first book in the Chip Harrison series. Basically it is a book of teen age angst. Chip desperately wants to lose his virginity. The entire book revolves around him wanting to get laid. Thankfully by the end he does because I couldn't have taken much more regardless of how well Block writes.
December 11, 2019
A great picaresque novel from Lawrence Block that follows that adventures and exploits of one Chip Harrison. The first two books in the series, No Score and Chip Harrison Scores Again are merely background for what would be the career of Chip Harrison, private eye.
October 13, 2024
I don't know what I was expecting, but it sure as hell wasn't this. Luckily, it was short. What it wasn't was a mystery. What it could have been was shorter. What it should have been was part of my DNF pile. But, like I said, it was short, so whatever.
May 7, 2025
Early pulp from Block. A weird take on Great Expectations, I think. Not a mystery, although the 1990 Signet edition I read promotes it as one. Lurid, disturbing at some points, very funny at others. Can’t recommend it.
June 3, 2017
Written earlier in his career under a pseudonym you get glimpse of the later Bernie Rhodenbarr character, but it doesn't have the finely honed Lawrence Block material of later years.
May 8, 2018
Light and entertaining fluff. Do you remember those awful teen sex comedies that came out every Tuesday in the 2000's? It's like that, kinda.
May 19, 2018
7/10
277 pages
277 pages
March 6, 2020
RPL Audio
Not your typical Block book. More of a comedy then a mystery. A very different style. Next is #2.
Not your typical Block book. More of a comedy then a mystery. A very different style. Next is #2.
June 26, 2020
I suppose Block had to write these stinkers so he could bring us Scudder after.
February 20, 2021
A little crude, but I can see Block's style and the story kept me reading.
February 27, 2022
Not bad.
May 8, 2023
Not one of Block's characters that I'm a big fan of...
November 1, 2025
I'd like to think that one of my favorite offers lost a bet and had to write this book which is one long junior high joke. Alas. I guess every author misses a note
July 7, 2017
The original working title of “No Score” was “Lecher in the Rye.” That should give you a good idea of what the subject matter is. Those looking for another Block series akin to Matthew Scudder or Bernie Rhodenbarr should look elsewhere. Block honed his writing craft and made a living in the sixties and early seventies with what are often termed softcore books that appeared on the newsstand racks with racy covers in an era long before anyone dreamed of the internet. He wrote “Warm and Willing,” “Thirty,” and “Threesome” under the pseudonym “Jill Emerson. He wrote “Carla,” and “Community of Women,” as “Sheldon Lord” and “Campus Tramp” and “Gutter Girl” as Andrew Shaw. Not to forget the Books written as “JohnWarren Wells.” The Chip Harrison series originally authored by the pseudonym “Chip Harrison” consists of four books “No Score” (1970), “Chip Harrison Scores Again” (1971), “Make Out With Murder” (1974), and “The Topless Tulip Caper.” These books, particularly the first two which are not mysteries at all, fall into the softcore category. They are meant to be humorous, tongue-in-cheek, bawdy tales of a young man (Chip Harrison) who has adventures wandering from one town to another and meeting women along the way.
In “No Score,” our lead character’s wealthy parents turn out to be con artists and leave the world in a double suicide, leaving Chip penniless and unwanted at the fancy prep school he was enrolled in. With no relations and a few odd dollars, he hitchhikes to Chicago, finds work with a photographer, who did candid shots by day and sets of dirty pictures by night with his wife as the model. After a risqué education by the photographer’s wife, Chip heads out to the countryside and finds himself working on door-to-door sales, working a variety of cons and scams. Throughout the novel, which is related in the first person, Block sticks to the voice of his narrator, who relates his adventures with youthful innocence and humor. It feels as if Block, in writing this, was half-poking fun at the entire genre. It’s not really meant to be taken seriously. All in all, this is a light, humorous, bawdy read, meant for a mature audience and is not part of Block’s body of mystery and noir work, although you can read this and hear his voice developing.
In “No Score,” our lead character’s wealthy parents turn out to be con artists and leave the world in a double suicide, leaving Chip penniless and unwanted at the fancy prep school he was enrolled in. With no relations and a few odd dollars, he hitchhikes to Chicago, finds work with a photographer, who did candid shots by day and sets of dirty pictures by night with his wife as the model. After a risqué education by the photographer’s wife, Chip heads out to the countryside and finds himself working on door-to-door sales, working a variety of cons and scams. Throughout the novel, which is related in the first person, Block sticks to the voice of his narrator, who relates his adventures with youthful innocence and humor. It feels as if Block, in writing this, was half-poking fun at the entire genre. It’s not really meant to be taken seriously. All in all, this is a light, humorous, bawdy read, meant for a mature audience and is not part of Block’s body of mystery and noir work, although you can read this and hear his voice developing.
February 19, 2017
Block's twisted version of a "Catcher in the Rye" tale.
July 27, 2013
I don't often give one-star reviews, especially to authors I usually like. But this one is--what? As one Goodreads reviewer put it, "an erotic non-thriller?" The title refers to 17-year-old Chip Harrison's inability to lose his virginity, despite repeated trying. Not funny. There's a hook at the end of the first chapter (as Raymond Chandler once said, "When you don't know what else to do, have a guy with a gun break in..."), but by chapter 6, with no discernible progress towards a resolution, I didn't care any more and just quit. The book is supposedly a first effort by Chip Harrison himself in order to make a few bucks, and that will excuse/explain all narrative problems. Ah, ironic meta-fiction. But again, not funny. I was under the impression that the Chip Harrison series was a send-up of/homage to Nero Wolfe; but apparently that's only the last two of four novels. I have other things to read.
July 18, 2010
First of all, this book by Mystery Grand Master Lawrence Block, which he wrote in the early 70's, is not a mystery at all. In fact, I don't know what kind of book you can call it. Erotic non-thriller?
The plot is this: 17 year old Chip Harrison is on a mission to get laid for the first time. Period.
Different settings. Different people. Chip still wants to get laid. For the first time. Etc.. etc...
Chip's been to first base. Second Base. And third base more times that Cubs third baseman Rob Santo (Blocks analogy, not mine). But he's never slid into home plate.
The funnny thing, even though No Shot had NO PLOT at all, the writer Block is so good, you almost enjoy what you are reading.
Almost.
If I ever pick up a Chip Harrison "mystery" again, I deserve to get shot myself.
Almost.
The plot is this: 17 year old Chip Harrison is on a mission to get laid for the first time. Period.
Different settings. Different people. Chip still wants to get laid. For the first time. Etc.. etc...
Chip's been to first base. Second Base. And third base more times that Cubs third baseman Rob Santo (Blocks analogy, not mine). But he's never slid into home plate.
The funnny thing, even though No Shot had NO PLOT at all, the writer Block is so good, you almost enjoy what you are reading.
Almost.
If I ever pick up a Chip Harrison "mystery" again, I deserve to get shot myself.
Almost.
February 26, 2014
This could easily be adapted into one of those raunchy teen comedies where a teenage virgin is trying to get laid, because that's what this is. 17-year-old Chip Harrison is still a virgin and wants to remedy that very badly. When his parents kill themselves after their life of crime is revealed and Chip is kicked out of his prep school, he takes to the road and ends up holding a variety of jobs like street photographer's assistant, termite inspector, and apple picker, all the while trying to get past third base and score.
And contrary to what the idiot publisher puts on the cover, this is not a mystery. At all. Ever. The only mystery is why they continue to put "mystery" on the cover when even the author states in his own afterword that it's not a mystery.
That is all.
And contrary to what the idiot publisher puts on the cover, this is not a mystery. At all. Ever. The only mystery is why they continue to put "mystery" on the cover when even the author states in his own afterword that it's not a mystery.
That is all.
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